All... just thought I'd thank everyone & close this topic out. I haven't been very active on the site because I have a hard time reading about Z's when mine isn't running.

Anyway, took the advice and put a Motorsport 6-1 header with a Turbo Dynomax muffler & 2.5" tailpipe. The headers look good & I think it runs just a little cooler. Power's about the same, but it sounds faster. Course I broke off two studs, had to drill them out ... but that's a familiar story.

But it's loud -- even louder than I thought it would be. I get that hard rasping sound even when I'm trying to avoid waking the neighbors at 5:30 when I go to work. Any final advice on taming the sound a bit? Feel like a 16 yr old kid going brrrraaappp--brraaap around the neighborhood.

If you want it just a tad quieter, Dynomax has a stright thru race muffler that could be used in the tunnel where the pre-muffler or resonator was in the stock system.

I bought one from Summit Racing for about 40 bucks and put it on my straight exhaust I had on the race car and it quieted it down considerably. Might just do the sound trick without cutting down the flow you have gained with the new system.